Operation Olympic/Ketsu-Go

OPERATION DOWNFALL: the planned but never executed Allied invasion of Japan was abandoned following the US atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Operation Olympic was to launch on November 1, 1945 with the objective to capture the southern third of the Japanese home island of Kyushu. After a rapid establishment of airbases and logistical hubs, this would then support the follow-up Operation Coronet that would strike near Tokyo planned for March 1946. The Japanese had long established their desire for a decisive battle to inflict an unacceptable level of casualties on the invading US troops, fueled by a fanatic devotion to their Emperor and country. The US invasion would provide that opportunity in a battle that promised ferocity to match or even exceed the epic and bloody German/Soviet struggle for Berlin. Operation Olympic/Ketsu-Go seeks to portray this situation in a playable simulation of the event. General Douglas MacArthur’s X-Day is about to start: it’s November 1, 1945…

Unit size: battalion/regiment. Hexes are 3 km across. Game Scale: 3 days/turn. Length: 20 turns (1 NOV 45-30 DEC 45).

Game system is a derivative of The Gamers’ Standard Combat Series. Unit symbols derived from Avalon Hill's The Longest Day are used on the half-inch, plastic counters.

There are three scenarios. The “historical” plan has “historical” forces for both US invaders and Japanese defenders. “An Olympic Miscalculation” adds the Japanese 36th Area Army to present a real challenge to the US plan. “Free for All” gives players wide latitude to try their own plans.

Rules cover weather, random events, artillery barrages, overruns, invasions, engineers, military police, assault guns, amtracs, evacuations, US replacement costs, air units, base capture and use, beachheads and ports, Rangers, US combined arms, chemical weapons, Japanese civil resistance, fortifications, banzai combat, infiltration tactics, infiltration teams, coastal fortifications, Special Attack Forces (“kamikazes”), US Little David mortar, and special terrain such as tunnels.